Firefighter trainers and associated apparatus are disclosed in a number of patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,933 issued to Rogers, et al. on Oct. 1, 1991 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,397 issued on May 2, 1995 to Rogers et al. relate to training with aircraft fires and fuel spills. Related trainers are disclosed in Rogers, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,869 issued Aug. 10, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,270 issued Aug. 29, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,033 issued Nov. 39, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,536 issued Jun. 14, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,375 issued Jul. 12, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,603 issued Nov. 22, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,124 issued Jan. 8, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,559 issued Aug. 9, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,055,050 issued Oct. 8, 1991; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,830 issued Sep. 13, 1994; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,403 issued to Luftig, et al. on May 21, 1996. All of the disclosures in these patents are incorporated in this application by reference.
Other references contain fire fighting trainers. The magazine Popular Science in the November 1994 issue on page 27 describes a stationary computer-controlled facility at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport for training firefighters on how to battle airport fires. The facility has mock-ups of an aircraft cabin, tail and wing engines, an automobile, an airport warehouse, a hotel room and a fuel spill. Smoke is provided by burning vegetable oil. The fire is supplied by propane fire-places which can be turned off at any time. The fuel-spill area surrounds a Boeing 737 mock-up and is divided into eight pie-piece-shaped segments so trainers can vary the size of the blaze. Liquid soap is added to the water fed to hoses to simulate foam. When the firefighters turn their hoses on the burning area, the water strikes metal discs embedded in the ground. Once the discs are cooled by the water, the fire is shut off in that area by a computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,191 issued on Dec. 20, 1994 to Herman et al. discloses a firefighter training device including a fuel spill.
Invention Registration H1134 issued to Meadows, et al. on Feb. 2, 1993 discloses an aircraft fire fighting trainer with a special type of flame simulation. The trainer has deflector shields located adjacent to nozzles to force the flames into a channel adjacent to the mockup causing a rolling flame to engulf all of the fuselage of the mockup.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,551 issued to Semenza on May 16, 1995 discloses a trailered mobile firefighter trainer simulating an aircraft. The trainer includes a central control means connected to a fuel distribution and burner system. Live spotter personnel are used to observe the exercise and control the flames in propane fireplaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,437 issued Sep. 5, 1995 to Joynt et al. discloses a container with a fuel burner and a pilot light associated therewith. The container has a perforated platform or grating over the top of the container as an outlet for the flames. Various items, such as a waste paper basket simulation, can be placed on the upper side of the platform.
Of particular interest to this invention is the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,807 issued Apr. 23, 1996 to Joice et al. That patent is directed to the type of fire trainer where propane liquid is passed through a layer of water which converts it to a gas which is ignited on the surface of the water. The inventors perceived two problems with the apparatus which were available at that time: One problem is that there is a danger of an accumulation of propane gas in and about the apparatus. The danger of this situation is compounded by the fact that the injected odor ingredient normally added to propane to facilitate its detection becomes absorbed by the water so that the presence of extraneous, non-combusted gas is not evident by the smell. The second problem conceived is that the unprotected pilot flame will be extinguished by the fire fighting agents being applied to the simulated fire ignition system. It is stated that, for the safety of the firefighter trainees, it is critical to ensure the continuing presence of an unquenched pilot flame of significant size capable of igniting the persisting gas traces during and after the main burn. The patent describes an apparatus which utilizes a water combustion conflagration system wherein propane fuel is fed from beneath water maintained in a tank and burns on the upper surface of the water. The pilot flame ignition apparatus is placed over the surface of the water. Further, the pilot is keep on at all times during the training session to avoid the possibility of having unburned gas on the surface of the water. The pilot light has a substantially inextinguishable flame during the training exercise which is protected from, and substantially impervious to, the ingress of extinguishment agents applied to the flame during the exercise.
The possibility of a fire in an aircraft on the ground or at a crash site has gained particular attention because of the potentially large loss of life in such situations. The larger airports have been able to build ground training facilities to continuously train firefighters in how best to handle such fires. At smaller airports, the training is normally accomplished by sending the firefighters to large installations for the training. This has unique disadvantages, the major one being the loss of personnel caused by the off-site training. Because of this, there has developed a need for a portable installation which can be setup on irregular ground to carry out the desired training.
In the prior art, the burner elements are normally permanently secured to a specially designed burn pit structure. The structure is usually part of a fire training facility designed specifically for the purposes of conducting fire training. The burn pit is designed for the installation of the burner elements using 4000 psi concrete. The elements are secured to the concrete using stainless steel spikes and then covered with gravel or gravel and water which serves to diffuse the propane, provides partial protection from the heat and also serves as a walking surface for the firefighters.
One problem with the prior art is that the burner elements require a costly permanent structure for their installation and operation. Further, such devices are difficult to construct. The prior art also has the problem of high initial acquisition costs due to the need for on-site construction and installation efforts.
A propane-fueled spill fire simulation uses a large number of spill burner elements to cover the area of the burn. The elements are arranged in a matrix of various designs and the combination provides flame generation over a large area to create the appearance of a single large ground-based fire. Each burner element is subjected to the thermal shock arising from their exposure to elevated temperatures followed by rapid cooling from extinguishing agent application.